Garage door holder



' June 13, 1933. w PELTQN GARAGE DOOR HOLDER Filed Dec. 19, 1930 gwue'nliot meat 14/ Pe/fon dub 1mg i 85 after.

. Patented June IS, 1933 UN D STATES PATENT OFFICE ERNEST w. rnnromor nn w Bartram, connncrrcnr, assrenon To turn STANLEY wonxs, or new BRITAIN, con mc'rxcur, A conronarron or connnc'rrou'r GARAGE noon HoLnEn Application filed December 19, 1930. serial No. 503,422.

This invention relates, to a device for holdrng doors, such as garage doors, n open position. i i

The object of the invention is to, provide an improved door holder of this sort having various features of novelty and advantage.

Aiparticular aim of theinvention is to provide a door holder which is efi'ective in operation in that it will securely hold the door in open position; it will permit of the door being readilyclose'd without the necessityof operating any latches orlocking devices; itxwill prevent the door from suddenly swinging to fullopen position, thus avoids ingthe danger of straining the hinges, or the,

door; itwill, to a large extent,act as a cushion and absorb strains which would otherwise be transmitted to the hinges when the door is moved to open position or when a force is brought against the door while in open position; and it willprevent the door from flapping or teetering when in open position. v a i A further aim of the invention is to provide a door holder whichwilloperate in a quiet manner.

:A still further aim ofthe invention is, to providea door holder which is very simple in construction, which may be economically p manufactured, wheh may be easily and quicklyinstalled, and which is strong and durable. V y H v r i Other objects will be in part obvious, and in part pointed out more in detail herein- The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth. and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.

1 Inthe accompanying drawing wherein is shown, for illustrative purposes, oneof the many embodiments which the present invention may take, 1

position which the parts assume when the door is closed;

i Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the posi- 1 is a view of the device showing the tion which the parts assume when the door 1s open, i i

Fig. 3 is a top view of the holder on a larger scale, aportion of one of the plates, between which the friction rollers are located, being broken away; 7

Fig. 4 is aside view of what is shown in Fig. 3; and i Fig.;.5, is a sectional view taken on line 55 of Fig. 3. y l

-Referring to thedraw'ing in detail, the improved door holder comprising the subject matter of the present invention is shown as being applied to a door A swingingly connected by hinges B to the side member O of a door frame. This door frame has a top member D. i i

The door holder has an arm designated generally by the numeral 10, and and one ates with a pair of yielding resilient rollers 11 carried by a frame having two space plates 12 and which frame is suitably connected to the underside of the top member D, as hereinafter described more in detail. The arm 10 preferably comprises a pair of metalstrips or bars 13 of suitable width and thickness, and of like construction but oppositelyz positioned. These bars are positioned side by side, and are suitably secured together as byspot welding, the spots at which the welding is done being indicated by the numeral 14. The outer or free ends, 85 of the bars are curved outwardly and backwardl y,as at 15, so as to form semi-circular seats which receive the rollers when the door 7 is in full open position. Each of the bars has, just rearwardly of its curvedend 15, an angled portionwith an apex or high point 16 from which the bar gradually inclines, as at 17,:in one direction and from which the bar inclines more abruptly, as at 18, in the opposite direction. By preference, the bars abut atthe junctures of the curved ends and the inclined portions 18, but this is notnecessary. The inclined surfaces 18 form, with the seats provided by the curved ends 15,

pockets in which the rubber rollers are en- 1 0 gaged when the door is open. The angled portions of the bars taken together form in the arm a double wedge, the rear sides 17 of which are relatively long and the forward sides 18 of which are relatively short and at a greater angle. There may be interposed between the arms, just rearwardly of the angled portions, a spacer strip 19 suitably welded to the bars, as at 20. V V

The plates 12 of the frame are secured together and are held in spaced apart relation by bushings 25, the ends 26 of which are of reduced diameter and suitably expanded in countersunk openings 27 in the plates. The rollers 11 are of any suitable yielding resilient material, but are preferably made of rubber having considerable resiliency and yieldability. These rollers are located on sleeves or spools 28 fitting about, and journaled on, the bushings 25. The frame, to-

gether with the rollers carried thereby, may be secured in place on the underside of the top member D by lag screws 29 projecting through the openings in the bushings 25.

The end of the arm opposite the curved portions 15 may be pivotally or hingedly secured to the door in any suitable manner, as by means of an eye-bolt 30.

The manner in which the door holder operates will be clear from the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing. It will be seen that to open the door and hold it inopen position, it is merely necessary to swing the door to its full open position. When this is done,

the straight portion of the arm 10' will pass freely between the friction rollers 11, and

when the tapered portion, having the in-. clined surfaces 17, comes into engagement with the rollers, it will tend to force those rollers apart, thereby flattening or compressing the rollers and at the same time springing the angular portions of the bars towards each other until the rollers are beyond the high point 16. 'Then the rollers will go into the pockets formed by the inclined surfaces 18 and the curved ends 15, and the angled portions of the bars will assume their normal condition. Due to the tapered portion having the inclined surfaces 17, the opening movement of the door is cushioned, so to speak, and thus the operator is prevented from throwing the door open violently, and

the door is prevented from slamming open in the event that a gust of wind should come against the door during the opening operation. Thus, the possibility of the door being slammed open and then being brought to an abrupt stop by the holder is prevented, together with the strains incident to such violent opening of the door. The rollers, when the door is open, fit nicely within the pockets so that the door is held against flapping, while at the same timethere is sufficient give and yieldability to the rollers to any latches or locking means. It is seen that each'bar is held against its associated roller b y the other roller.

" It is iirther observed that each roller constitutes means for holding, in a resilient manner, the arm against the other roller.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or'shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. 7

It is also tobe understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

"What I claim is:

1. In a door holder, a pair of spaced apart yielding resilient rubber rollers, and an arm adapted to pass between said rollers, said 1 arm being adapted to be connected at one end to said door, the other end of said arm having a pair of semi-circular seats with which said rollers are adapted to engage, said arm rearwardly of said seats gradually increasing in width to a high point and then decreasing in width, the high point being greater in width than the distance between said rollers.

2. In a door holder, a pair of spaced apart rollers adapted to be secured in fixed relation to a door frame, and an arm comprising a pair of bars secured together, said arm at one end being adapted to be connected to the door, the bars at their other ends being curved outwardly and backwardly in opposite directions to form a pair of seats, each of said arms rearwardly of the curved end thereof having an angled portion offset from the medial line of the arm.

3. In a door holder, a pair of parallel plates, a. pair of bushings to the ends of which said plates are secured, a resilient roller journaled on each bushing, an arm adapted to pass between said rollers and adapted to be connected at one end to a door, said arm comprising a pair of bars secured together, the free ends of said bars being curved in opposite directions to form a pair of seats for the rollers, each of said arms a roller adapted to besecured to a door frame, a a bar, one end of which is adapted to be conrearwardly of its curved end having an angled portion.

4. In a door holder, a yielding resilient nected to the door, the other end of said bar being curved outwardly and rearwardly to form a seat for said roller, said curved 1 portion constituting a positive stop, said bar having, rearwardly of said curved portion,

an angled portion with a forward inclined surface adapted to maintain said roller in said seat when the door is fully opened, and means to that side of said bar opposite said roller for holding the bar against said roll- 

